James Torbitt

“ It is to be remarked, that the tubers of every seedling should be kept separate, as scarcely two will be of a similar habit and quality, whilst many will be comparatively worthless, and but few of particular excellence. If the seed is obtained from a red potato that flowered in the neighbourhood of a white-tubered variety, the seedlings, in all probability, will in part resemble both of their parents; but seldom or never does a seedling resemble exactly the original stock. At all events, only such should be preserved as are recommended by their superior earliness, size, flavour, or fertility. ”

“ In his essay in the Philosophical Transactions, published in the year 1810, he propounded the theory, not merely of a natural limit to varieties from grafts and cuttings, but even that they would not survive the natural term of the life of the seedling trees from which they were originally taken. Whatever may have been his view of the natural term of the life of a tree, and of a cutting being merely a part of the individual that produced it, there is no doubt that he laid himself open to the effective replies which were made from all sides at the time, and have lost none of their force since. ”

“ Whether or not one adopts the present writer's conception, that individuality is not actually reached or maintained in the vegetable world, it is clear enough that a common plant or tree is not an individual in the sense that a horse or man, or any one of the higher animals, is—that it is an individual only in the sense that a branching zoophyte or mass of coral is. Solvitur crescendo: the tree and the branch equally demonstrate that they are not individuals, by being divided with impunity and advantage, with no loss of life, but much increase. ”

“ Of such cases it is enough to say that, when a variety or strain, of animal and vegetable, is led up to unusual fecundity or of size or product of any organ, for our good, and not for the good of the plant or animal itself, it can be kept so only by high feeding and exceptional care; and that with high feeding and artificial appliances come vastly increased liability to disease, which may practically annihilate the race. ”

“ I have also succeeded in obtaining varieties which do not vegetate till late in the spring, and which, nevertheless, acquire perfect or rather early maturity in autumn, and there are probably climates in which such varieties would be peculiarly valuable; and the ductility and obedience of this species of plant to human will is so great, that I doubt whether, by the Creation and selection of proper varieties, as abundant a produce might not be obtained within the limits of the frigid zone as in the torrid zone, of which the potato is a native. ”

“ As offspring tend to resemble grand-parents almost as much as parents, and as a line of close-bred ancestry is generally prepotent, so newly originated varieties have always a tendency to reversion. This is pretty sure to show itself in some of the progeny of the earlier generations, and the breeder has to guard against it by rigid selection. But the older the variety is—that is, the longer the series of generations in which it has come true from seed—the less the chance of reversion: for now, to be like the immediate parents, is also to be like a long line of ancestry ”

“ With regard to the potato,—the roots, stems, and foliage die annually, the seed is thrown away, the germs in the tubers are planted in fresh soil, and they are always placed in a position to form new absorbing organs (roots) and so to live out life to the end—a period, I think, of about 60 or 80 years. That is, they may live to the end of their term of life; but in point of fact, like other individuals, they are almost invariably cut off by disease or some adverse influence which their vitality, enfeebled by old age, is unable to withstand. ”

“ I submit that the experiment cannot be got over, and that the question is settled; that plants cannot be propagated for ever by their buds.
In my judgment, a tree is not a multitude of individual lives residing in one common structure, but on the contrary a tree and its buds, and the forest which may be derived from them by cuttings, is only one individual life residing in a multitude of structures. ”

“ But I am convinced, by the evidence of experiments which I have been some years in making, that the potato plant, under proper management, is capable of causing to be brought to market a much greater weight of vegetable food, from any given extent of ground, than any other plant which we possess, with equal profit to the farmer. ”

“ It looks odd enough to see a writer like Mr. Sisley reproducing the old hypothesis in so bare a form as this: 'I am prepared to maintain that varieties are individuals, and that as they are born they must die, like other individuals.' 'We know that oaks, sequoias, and other trees live several centuries, but how many we do not exactly know. But that they must die, no one in his senses will dispute.' Now what people in their senses do dispute is, not that the tree will die, but that other trees, established from cuttings of it, will die with it. ”

“ Were a tree capable of affording an eternal succession of healthy plants from its roots, I think our woods must have been wholly overrun with those species of trees which propagate in this manner, as those scions from the roots always grow in the first three or four years with much greater rapidity than seedling plants. ”

“ Some of them grow as much as 200 acres each season; some of them agree with me that a branch of a plant is only a branch of an individual life, whether it be separated from the original stem or not;—almost all of them think that the potato in time "deteriorates," "degenerates," "wears out;" and they are unanimous in believing that new "varieties" should now be obtained from the seed. ”

“ If it were applied to the human race, how the mattter of the better cultivation of a plant would fade into nothingness, by comparison. As to manures, let the sets in the middle row have a full dose of farm-yard manure, if possible containing seeds of the parasite. For the seedlings I cannot say; if the soil is good, I think, perhaps, they are as well without it. Before planting out the seedlings, they should be "hardened off." At all times except in frost, the conservatory should have a full supply of air. ”

“ I planted in my garden, in the last season, some tubers of a variety of potato of very early habits, but possessing more vigour of growth than is usually seen in such varieties. The soil in which they were planted was in good condition, but not richer than the soils of gardens usually are, and the manure which it had received consisted chiefly of decayed oak leaves, which I prefer to other manures, because it never communicates a strong taste or flavor to any vegetable. ”

“ I suspect that even now, old age—too prolonged propagation from cuttings—is at the bottom of the vine grower's troubles, and several of them to whom I have explained the matter, fully agree with me; and one at least is preparing to grow the vine from the seed. Also the sugar planters, who it seems always propagate from cuttings, will of necessity have their own pestilence in due time; that is, if vegetative multiplication is not an equivalent to sexual reproduction. ”

“ And if you say that, anyhow, such varieties do not die of old age—meaning that each individual attacked does not die of old age, but of manifest disease—it may be asked in return, what individual man ever dies of old age in any other sense than of a similar inability to resist invasions which in earlier years would have produced no noticeable effect? Aged people die of a slight cold or a slight accident, but the inevitable weakness that attends old age is what makes these slight attacks fatal. ”

“ When the rest-spores are mature, they separate themselves from the mycelium on which they grow, and lie as free bodies in the substance of the potato. And when in course of time the whole of the plant perishes, these small hardy bodies remain, able to endure through the winter, and ready to renew the life of the destructive fungus with the restored vegetable life of another year. ”

“ Being too late in applying to you for it, the crop did not reach maturity before disease set in and checked the growth. My opinion is that the seed should be sown early in March, so that the plant might appear by the middle of April. I did not succeed in having any tubers larger than beans. My efforts have been principally directed to the rearing of new tubers of old varieties; that is new white rocks, and now the white rock seldom produces apples. In fact all our approved varieties very seldom produce seed, and it is very difficult to renew the sort when worn out by age. ”

“ This cannot readily be explained away while the failures may be, by exhaustion of soil, incoming of disease, or alteration of climate or circumstances. On the other hand, it may be urged that, if a variety of this sort is fated to become decrepit and die out, it is not bound to die out all at once, and every where at the same time. It would be expected first to give way wherever it is weakest, from whatever cause. This consideration has an important bearing upon the final question, are old varieties of this kind on the way to die out on account of their age or any inherent limit of vitality? ”

“ When the 'potato apple or plum' is ripe, preserve it from frost till it is shrivelled, when the pulp, &c. may be mixed with peat-mould, and preserved in that way till sowing time. About this season a slight hot-bed may be made, and when filled to about one foot from the glass a layer of turf should be placed above the fermenting material, with the grassy side down, and over this about four inches in depth of peat-mould and rotten dung, or fine rich mould, should be spread; then sow the seed in rows, four inches apart, adding a little soil between them as the plants advance. ”

“ I put up here in Belfast an experimental factory; I extracted 120 gallons of juice out of each ton of tubers, containing the whole flesh-forming matters of the plant; rasped up the compressed solid matters; separated rather more starch than is obtained by the usual processes, and I had then remaining that which is now lost—to wit, the 120 gallons of juice, and the pulp or raspings, which always contain a considerable quantity of starch, and which forms little mountains at all the potato starch manufactories. ”

“ It is the legitimate explanation of those arrangements in nature to secure cross-fertilization in the species, either constantly or occasionally, which are so general, so varied and diverse, and we may add so exquisite and wonderful, that, once propounded, we see that it must be true. ”

“ It has been proved by many other persons, as well as by myself, that if all the blossoms of a potato plant be picked off, as soon as they become visible, the quantity of tubers will be considerably increased? particularly if the variety be one which produces seeds; and I have shown that the cause why early varieties of the potato do not afford blossoms is the preternaturally early disposition of the plant to generate its tuberous roots. ”

“ In raising varieties of the potato from seeds it is always expedient to use artifical heat. I have trained up a young seedling plant in a somewhat shaded situation in the stove till it has been between four and five feet high, and then removed it to the open ground in the beginning of May, covering its stem during almost its whole length lightly with mould, and by such means I have obtained within the first year nearly a peck of potatoes from a single plant. ”

“ An aspen is seldom seen without a thousand suckers rising from its roots; yet this tree is thinly, though universally, scattered over the woodlands of this country. I can speak from experience, that the luxuriance and excessive disposition to extend itself in another plant, which propagates itself from the root (the raspberry) , decline in twenty years from the seed. The common elm being always propagated from scions or layers, and growing with luxuriance, seems to form an exception ”

“ So we have been unconsciously harbouring the potato disease in permitting the haulm and foliage to decay on the field or in dungheaps, which left the undecaying oospores behind ready to start into life when the proper conditions were present. ”

“ And the very simple solution of the paradox is this–there are seedlings and seedlings, just as there are men and men. One man out of two, perhaps, yields to the attack of Asiastic Cholera, the other is wholly unaffected; so with the potato: under conditions favourable to the parasite, about four plants out of five fail to resist the disease absolutely; from one to ten per cent. of the tubers become diseased slightly, and in a few plants, all the tubers become diseased. Thus of my five thousand seedlings of last season, four thousand became more or less diseased ”

“ The foliage of one stem consequently often becomes so placed as to shade the foliage of another; and as the whole material of the tubers is formed of living matter, which is generated in the leaves only, and as all leaves which are shaded become inefficient and useless, a sufficient degree of strength and rigidity in the stems to enable them to retain their foliage in its first position is very important; though I believe that this circumstance has not hitherto attracted the attention of any cultivator of the potato. ”

“ In nearly the same manner as it is admitted by naturalists that hybridism, from inducing sterility, is of service in keeping the forms of life distinct and fitted for their proper places; so, when species are rendered highly variable by changed conditions of life, the free inter-crossing of the varying individuals will tend to keep each form fitted for its proper place in nature ”

“ In February, if you have the convenience of a hot-bed or hot-house, let the seed be sown thinly in flower-pots of rich light earth, and cover very lightly. In a month or six weeks, or as soon as the young plants are an inch high, they are to be raised carefully, and planted singly in small pots, and placed in a frame where they will have a very little warmth, and where they must have plenty of air and water as required until the middle of May, when they may be turned out of the pots into the open ground, without breaking the ball. ”

“ At the end of March, or beginning of April, the seed is sown in a hot-bed, and treated much the same as other culinary plants. If there is a convenient place for a hot-bed near a wall or house, exposed to the sun, glass is not necessary; the plants may be treated like tuberous plants, but as they are very susceptible of frost at night, they should be covered with straw or boards, which can easily be done, as the bed is surrounded with boards set in the ground, upon which the covering can be laid without injuring the plants. ”

“ But then the race, like the bursted boiler, could not be said to wear out, while if left to ordinary conditions, and allowed to degenerate back into a more natural, if less useful state, its hold on life would evidently be increased rather than diminished. ”

“ I further inferred that as the potato became aged, it became so weak as to be unable to resist the attack of the parasite whose growth in the body of the plant forms the disease, and that in order to extirpate the parasite it would be necessary to grow young vigorous plants from the seed. ”

“ Every care now should be taken to destroy by burning all diseased haulm; and as diseased tubers also harbour the rest-spores, these should be utilised in some way in which the spores could not be injurious, as by employing them in the manufacture of starch or British arrowroot. A vigorous and universal attempt thus to deal with the fungus might now greatly reduce the future liability to, and extent of the disease, though it can never, I fear, deliver us entirely from it. ”

“ Also the stem of the old plant becomes in time almost all converted into heart-wood; the circulation of the sap is almost entirely arrested, and this in itself seems sufficient to account for death before exhaustion of the full allotment of life, and explains why the plants derived by cuttings from the old stem live longer—their circulation is not destroyed by the growth of heart-wood. ”